Data Shows Huge Reduction in Diné Speakers

Navajo Times | Ravonelle YazzieA poster emphasizing the Diné language is on display at the Diné Language Teachers Association Fall Conference at San Juan College in Farmington on Oct. 26.

Published November 19, 2017

WINDOW ROCK – Language loss and revitalization aren’t new topics in Indian Country. Over the last couple of decades, the Navajo Nation has watched as other languages, like that of the Eyak, an Alaskan tribe, or the Lake Miwok, a tribe in California, became extinct or dormant.

While the Navajo language has 7,600 Navajo-only speakers and over 171,000 fluent speakers worldwide, according to “Ethonologue: Languages of the World,” it’s considered at risk.

Data shows huge reductions in native Navajo speakers, said AnCita Benally, the program manager for the Office of Standards, Curriculum and Assessment Development.

The office is under the Department of Diné Education and works to develop Navajo language and cultural competency among Navajo students.

“Based on the rate of decline, how it has been accelerating, the guess is maybe by 2020, which is in three years, when they do the Census, (Navajo language speakers) will be down to 30 percent,” Benally said.

This estimate is based on Census data that was studied by Florian Johnson, a cultural specialist at Rock Point Community School.

In 1980, 93 percent of Navajos spoke the language. Ten years later, in 1990 it had declined to 84 percent. Then in 2000 the percentage of Navajo speakers decreased to 76 percent.

Another decade later, in 2010, the Navajo language showed its most stark decline to date, to 51 percent.

In the span of just 10 years the percentage of Navajo language speakers dropped 25 percent, according to Census data.

“In 2030 we might be down to 10 percent or so,” Benally said. “It’s very alarming.”

According to research by Wendy Greyeyes, an assistant professor at the University of New Mexico, the decline in Navajo speakers is more substantial for those 39 and under — meaning they are less likely to speak Navajo.

For those 40 and over the decline is considered slight.

“The younger the generations are, the less likely they are to speak Navajo,” Benally said. “By the time you get down to kindergarten there are none.”

Editor’s Note: This article was first published in the Navajo Times. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

About The Author

As far as I am aware, I don’t have an ounce of Native blood in my veins, but that doesn’t speak to my soul. If there is an inexpensive program that I could learn to speak Dine, I am more than ready to learn and then to teach it. It is so sorrowful that the Native Americans were first told they could not speak their own language for fear of being murdered by those who ran the reservations. But come World War II, the US govt sure wanted your languages to beat the Nazi’s. Hell of a thank you you got in return. Please let me know if there is anything that I can do to assist.

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